Witness testifies detective admired robber’s disguise

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2002 | 9:44 a.m.

Four years before Rae's Lounge was robbed by a man swathed in bandages, Metro Police Detective Jack Brandon expressed admiration for a similar disguise worn by well-known casino robber Donnell Johnson, a Tropicana hotel security expert testified Monday.

Charles Cauwel, testifying on the fourth day of Brandon's robbery trial, told jurors that in April 1997 he and Brandon were watching a videotape of a Tropicana robbery when Brandon said "Wow."

"He stated the obvious -- that it would be very difficult to pick the man out of a lineup because of the medical tape, the sunglasses and the ball cap," Cauwel testified.

Prosecutors allege Brandon, a 14-year Metro veteran, covered his face in bandages and robbed two United Coin employees as they were making a pickup on Feb. 22 at the Henderson lounge.

Brandon was tied to the robbery after the license plate of the alleged getaway car came back to Brandon's police-issued Ford Taurus. A Global Positioning System device placed on the car also reportedly placed the car at the scene of the robbery at the time of the incident.

Under cross-examination, Cauwel acknowledged that there are some differences in the appearance of Johnson's disguise and that of the man who robbed Rae's.

Donnell Johnson, 27, and his brother, Reginald, 28, are well-known by Metro robbery detectives, having been implicated in numerous casino holdups.

Donnell Johnson is serving a 30-year-to-life sentence for a July 2000 robbery at Treasure Island, and Reginald is serving 130 years for robbing Treasure Island on three occasions. Reginald is also serving two no-parole life terms for throwing another inmate at the Clark County Detention Center over a balcony, almost killing him.

Also on Monday, defense attorney Steve Stein again had his client stand before a witness in an effort to prove Brandon does not have pockmarks, which Eric Culp, a busboy at Rae's, said he saw on areas of the robber's face not covered by the bandage.

On Monday, Stein dared Metro Detective Steve Popp to draw circles around Brandon's pockmarks, drawing laughs from the jury, Brandon and the audience.

After remarking, "This is a first," Popp complied. After he was done, he said "There's probably 20 or 30 more spots I could've circled."

Popp and Stein then proceeded to quibble over Brandon's blemishes -- whether they are pockmarks, pimples or discolorations.

"I'm not a dermatologist. That's just my opinion," Popp said at one point.

Brandon, who was fired from the department earlier this month, faces one count of burglary and two counts of robbery.